Bomarzo's
screaming face is perhaps its best known icon. (Copyright
Silvanoaudisio | Dreamstime.com)

Antonio edged his way through the bushes. He
wasn't scared, he told himself. He was ten now. Almost a man.
The other boys were just trying to frighten him with their stories
of monsters hidden in these woods. There was really nothing here.
He had to admit to himself that the place was spooky. It looked
like it might have been a garden in times past, but it hadn't
been taken care of in decades, maybe even centuries. Even so,
there was nothing to be afraid of. This was 1905. Twentieth century
Italy. Nobody believed in monsters anymore.

Suddenly Antonio found himself standing in front
of an enormous shape. At first he thought it was a rock, but the
lines were too regular. He stepped back a bit and then saw it.
An eye glaring at him. Suddenly he realized that he was staring
at the face of a huge dragon, its jaws open and ready to devour
him. Antonio turned and ran and ran and ran. He was out of the
grove in less than a minute, never to return.

Gardens come in many varieties. Some are minimalist
like the famous Zen garden at the Ryoan-ji temple in Kayoto, Japan.
The garden consists of only an area of raked sand punctuated by
15 irregularly-shaped rocks of varying sizes. Others have fantastically
intricate designs, like the French formal gardens at the Palace
of Versailles in France. They contain several square kilometers
of stunning flower beds, terraces, fountains, canals, topiary
and statuary.

A
dragon in combat with lions and dogs. (Copyright
Silvanoaudisio | Dreamstime.com)

Perhaps the weirdest garden, however, is located
just outside the small village of Bomarzo, in Italy. It contains
some of the most horrific statuary that one can imagine. A huge
elephant carries a trampled soldier, a giant tears apart his enemy,
a dragon combats its prey and a colossal mouth gapes open to swallow
visitors. Who would have made such a bizarre place and why?

The
Melancholy Duke

The story starts with a young nobleman named Duke
Pierfrancesco "Vicino" Orsini. Orsini was born around 1516 and
married a noblewoman named Guilia Farnese in 1544. He worked as
a military officer and diplomat until 1553 when he was captured
in the same battle that killed his best friend. He was held for
ransom for three years and then, shortly after his release, his
beloved wife died. Depressed, Orsini retreated to his family's
holdings near Bomarzo where he began to plan his strange, melancholy
garden.

What is known of the garden is mostly just what
historians have found by visiting it. Orsini left no records telling
what his intentions were in creating the peculiar grove filled
with macabre statuary. Fortunately, Orsini placed inscriptions
near many of the objects, giving us some clue to what he was thinking.
Upon entering what Orsini called his Bosco Sacro ("Sacred Grove")
visitors are greeted with the message:

This challenge to visitors translates as "You who
enter this place, observe it piece by piece and tell me afterwards
whether so many marvels were created for deception or purely for
art."

The grove was laid out on a hill and the statues
carved out of natural, volcanic, rock outcroppings. For this reason
there seems little order to how the place is organized. This,
however, might have also been a part of Orsini's plan. With no
logical layout, as one of the inscriptions say, it might have
been his way "just to set the heart free."

The
"Mask of Madness."(Copyright
Silvanoaudisio | Dreamstime.com)

There are more than two dozen major works of immense
art in the garden including a dragon fighting with lions and wolves,
many figures depicting the Roman/Greek gods,and a house purposely
built on an angle to throw visitors off balance. The style is
referred to as Mannerist, a genre popular in the late 14th century
in which artists sought not to please viewers, but to astonish
them by using figures with elongated forms in exaggerated and
out-of-balance poses. The artist who created the scupltures is
thought to be Pirro Ligorio, a well-known architect of the time.
While guests might be so overwhelmed by Ligorio's statues that
they might be tempted not look carefully at every object in the
grove, there are several of the scuptor's works here that definately
should not be missed.

Elephants,
Giants and Dragons

One of the largest and most striking pieces of art
is the War Elephant. This immense creature carries a castle on
its back and an unconcious Roman soldier in its trunk. While elephants
carrying castles were a popular symbol in Medieval and Renaissance
art, this particular packaderm might be a reference to the invasion
of Italy by Hannibal in 218 BC. If so, Hannibal's unique use of
elephants in that war to strike terror into the opposing army
is forever frozen in stone at Bomarzo. Other experts, however,
insist that the elephant is a reference to the story of Eleazar
in The Book of Maccabees. Eleazer kills the king's elephant, but
is in turn himself killed when he is crushed under the beast.

Another striking work of art captures two giants
in battle. One has gotten the better of the other and is engaged
in ripping him in two by the legs. Here the nearby inscription
gives a clue as to what is going on:

If Rhodes previously took pride from its Colossus
so by this one my wood is glorified and further I can do no more
than I have done.

This sounds like a quote from Arioto's poem Orlando
Furioso. In that work the hero, Orlando, is driven mad by
the loss of his love, Angelica. In his insanity he happens across
a woodsman who he kills by the same method as depicted in the
statuary. Some scholars suggest this is a hint from Orsini, like
Orlando, he is being driven mad by the loss of his wife, Guilia.

Another enigmatic work at Bomarzo is what appears
to be the head of a marine monster with a sphere balanced on the
top of its skull. The sphere itself is topped with a castle. The
official guide to Bomarzo lists this as Proteus and/or Glaucus,
who were early sea gods. Other scholars refer to this as the "mask
of madness." Like most of the art work at the sacred grove, the
exact meaning has been lost.

The
War Elephant. (Copyright
Silvanoaudisio | Dreamstime.com)

Perhaps the most terrifying effigy at the sacred
grove and the image most associated with the garden is a horrific
inhuman face carved into the rock of the hillside. The mouth,
opened wide in a scream, is big enough to walk through and the
inscription "all reason departs" accompanies this work. Some scholars
identify the creature as an Orc ready to swallow unwary children.
Others think Orsini meant it to be the mouth of hell. Perhaps
it is both. In any case, Orsini retained at least some humor in
the creature's portrayal: There is enough room inside the head
for visitors to have a picnic lunch seated at a table formed by
the figure's tongue.

Orsini died in 1584 and after that nothing more
was added to the garden. By the 19th century the sacred grove
lay forgotten and overgrown. Stories developed among the towns
people about the monsters in the haunted woods and many villagers
were frightened to go near the area. Eventually the place was
dubbed "The Grove of the Monsters."

20th
Century Visitors

In 1938 the Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali
paid the grove a visit. Making his way through the tangle of weeds
he was awestruck by the figures. He shot a short film at the park
and later the figures were to inspire his 1946 painting The
Temptation of Saint Anthony. Other artists soon echoed Dali's
interests.

The poet Andre Pieyre de Mandiagues wrote as essay
about the garden. Artist Niki de Saint Phalle was inspired by
it to create her own Tarot Garden in Tuscany, Italy after
she visited Bomarzo. In 1962 Argentinian writer Manuel Mujica
Láinez wrote a novel entitled Bomarzo, based on the life
of Orsini. He followed the novel by composing an a libretto based
on the book and in 1967 Alberto Ginastera set the libretto to
music and it became an opera for which Mujica Láinez and Ginastera
shared a Pulitzer Prize.

It was not until the 1950's when the park was bought
by Giovanni Bettini that some restoration began to take place.
Located 60 miles north of Rome, it is now open to the public and
attracts artists and art lovers from all over the world.

Why did Orsini build the strange garden? There are
several theories historians have come up with. One possibility
is that he wanted to create a contrast to the symmetry of the
Renaissance gardens of his friend Cristoforo Madruzzo. Orsini
knew he couldn't afford to compete with Madruzzo on the size or
splendor of the garden, so instead he tried to create a place
that would shock and awe his visitors.

Another theory, suggested by author Christopher
McIntosh, is that making this melancholy garden was a form of
self-therapy for Orsini to get him out of his depression after
the loss of his wife. McIntosh likens it to a person who is depressed
and finds that reading gloomy poetry creates a counter-reaction
that cheers him up.

Did this work for Orsini? One can only hope so.
The last item added to the garden was not a giant monster, but
a small temple. It was built twenty years after the rest of the
garden and was dedicated to Orsini's second wife. Perhaps in this
final creation we see some sign that the Duke found rest from
the monsters which seemed to haunt his soul.